To Be Noticed
by Myra109
Summary: Chad always wanted attention, but his parents were never there to give it to him. Cinderella has never regretted anything more. Bulimia, character death, other warnings inside, and I hope the characters aren't too OOC but it's hard to write the Aurodan parents in stories like these


_Sorry for my absence, but I had lack of motivation._

 _WARNINGS: BULIMIA, CHARACTER DEATH, UNDERAGE DRINKING, LANGUAGE, BRIEF MENTIONS OF DRUG ABUSE BUT NOT GRAPHIC AT ALL_

 ** _Disclaimer: I own nothing._**

* * *

Cinderella was not one to be neglectful or forgetful or uncaring, but sometimes she let things fall under the radar. She forgot to sign the law declaring dwarves to possess equal rights; she forget to take the cake out of the oven and nearly burnt the castle down; she forgot to pay the help for two weeks once and had only remembered because one of the maids reminded her.

But she had never regretted anything more than all those times she allowed her only son to slip under the radar.

When Chad was born, she and Kit couldn't have been happier. Chad was the perfect child, always keeping up with his studies and chores and helping out whenever he could. He was so perfect that Cinderella assumed that he didn't need a guiding hand.

She should've known better.

When Chad entered elementary school, he started to act out. He got into fights, pulled pranks, made huge messes if only to tick her off.

She simply grounded him, and then returned to her duties as the queen. Cinderella thought she'd gotten through to him, but Chad started to act out more and she hadn't put the pieces together.

When Chad was ten, he'd come home at midnight, drunk as heck. Keep in mind, he was ten.

Cinderella had shoved him into his room (gently, she would never intentionally hurt her son) before discussing it with Kit.

"I don't know, Ella," Kit had told her. "It's like I don't even know who he is anymore. He went from being perfect to being one step away from prison, and I don't know why."

"I don't know either," She'd mumbled. "What are we going to do with him?"

Kit shook his head. "We'll let him off with a warning; if it gets any worse, then we'll talk to him."

And boy, did it get worse.

When Chad was twelve, he disappeared for a week and came back to his frazzled mother and his stressed out father.

"Where have you been?" Kit had screamed when Chad came through the door, his face beet red. "Your mother and I have been worried sick!"

"Didn't seem that way two years ago," Chad muttered.

"Don't back talk me!" Kit snapped. "I want you to go to your room; you are grounded until further notice."

"Good," Chad spat as if this were a reward rather than a punishment before he stormed up to his bedroom.

Chad turned thirteen, and they rarely saw him leave his room, even for meals. Cinderella would have the maids leave food outside his room, and it disappeared most of time, but sometimes, it would be left in the hallway, untouched.

Food would sometimes go missing from downstairs: chips and sweets and fruit and bread and everything in between. She often wondered how Chad could eat so much.

When it was time for him to return to school, he had to leave his room to get his school supplies and her worry skyrocketed.

He'd lost weight, going from a healthy 130 to 100 pounds at the most. His clothes were baggy, and his skin was pale as snow, but what worried her the most was his face and hair.

Chad's face was once full and healthy, handsome like his father's, but now, his cheek bones stuck out of his skin, painfully. His eyes were sunken in, surrounded by dark circles and she could count every bone in his face, neck, and upper chest. He looked like a skeleton.

And his hair. His hair was once a luscious blonde like her's, long and wind blown and curly. Now, it appeared to be unruly straw, and she knew that if she touched it, the hair would break and fall into her hand.

She wanted to cry.

The next morning Chad came down looking like his old self, if a bit on the skinny side, and Cinderella could convince herself that what she'd seen yesterday had been her imagination. Her worry for her son causing her to see something that was not real.

She didn't know that Chad was wearing multiple layers of clothes to make himself look bigger. She didn't know that he was wearing makeup and concealer to make his skin look healthier and less pale. She didn't know that Chad had put a dozen hair products in his hair to make his hair look like it used to.

And Chad didn't want her to know.

Chad went off to school and continued to self destruct until he was sixteen when the villain kids came to town.

Cinderella was so happy because her son seemed to be back to his perfect self, but it was all an act.

She didn't know that he tricked girls into doing his homework for him. She didn't know that he took steroids and caffeine tablets to play Tourney because his body was so exhausted and malnourished.

Later that year, at parent day, she witnessed her son insult the villain kids, who had done nothing wrong. That was when she truly noticed that something was wrong.

But she didn't stop it, deciding to wait until the summer to speak with him about his behavior.

And that was her mistake.

On May 19th, at precisely 2:39 am, Chad Charming's heart stopped dead in his chest.

And Ella and Kit lost their only child, their sixteen year old son, to Bulimia Nervosa.

* * *

They attended the funeral a week later.

Almost the entirety of Aurodan Prep was there from the Headmistress to Audrey, Ben, and the Tourney team to the VK kids. Audrey was sniffling into the child of Jafar's shoulder; Cruella's son had an arm around a painfully thin Jane Fairy. Ben was holding Maleficent's daughter, who simply blinked at the casket with a shocked, far away gaze. And Evie, who Chad had told her about, sobbed into Doug's shoulder, whispering, "I dated him. How did I not see it?"

Teachers, parents, and the Tourney team were standing off to the side, talking in hushed tones while casting quick, pained glances at the casket and the picture of Chad (an old picture from when he was twelve before the eating disorder).

Ella broke down because damn it, she was his mother! She saw him wasting away before her very own eyes and she did nothing. Why didn't she do anything?

Kit took her in his arms and let her cry while he sniffled too, allowing his own tears to fall into her hair.

And they remembered and they wished and they prayed for Chad's happiness.

And somewhere, in the afterlife, Chad Charming whispers, "I forgive you."

* * *

It's a sad day when a parent out lives their child, but Kit and Ella began to heal, despite the fact that they'd never have grandchildren and that their family line died out with Chad. Still, they were okay with that as long as Chad was happy.

They met the children of Chad's friends, and Fairy Godmother cried on Ella's shoulder when her own child died of anorexia.

But perhaps the biggest surprise was when Ella fell pregnant.

They named her Ashley Cara, and told her stories of Chad. That's what Ash named her first child- Chad Cedric- after her big brother.

Ella died at age seventy-seven, Kit passing a year before her, and they reunited with Chad in the afterlife. Together, the family watched Chad II and his sisters, Lily and Luna, grow up under Ashley's parenting.

You should have seen Ashley's face when she died and got to meet the big brother she never met...

Chad died young, but he didn't care because he was finally happy. Ella missed him, but when she saw his bright smile in the afterlife, she realized that maybe this was meant to be.

Still, she couldn't help but wonder what their lives would be like if she had just noticed.

* * *

 _I know I mentioned that Chad had children in Perfect Pretty Princess, but just pretend I said Ashley's children in that. Yeah, this turned out to be more depressing than I anticipated, but I thought it was pretty good. tell me what you think!_

 _Finally, this is the end of the series. I thought about doing Doug, but I really don't know what to do with him and his future, other than having kids with Evie. thank you and sorry._


End file.
